Posture Support Chair

A posture support chair - also known as an ergonomic chair - comes in three basic types.

The first type of posture support chair is very similar to the design and look of a regular office chair but it has important in-built enhancements to its design that enable it to provide support in important areas and to encourage the user to adopt correct postural positioning when sitting on it.

Typically, the enhancements a posture support chair has over a regular chair include such things as:

• Extra thick or inflatable or otherwise adjustable lumbar support. This supports the natural forward tilt of the pelvis to promote the alignment of the spine.
• Height adjustable back to help get the lumbar support into the correct position.
• Seat depth and seat angle adjustments to ensure legs are at the best angle.

The second type of posture support chair is radically different - in fact it doesn't look much like a chair at all in the conventional sense. This is the kneel or kneeling chair.
The kneeling chair does have a seat pad to sit on but it has no back to lean back against - instead it has kneeling pads ahead of and below the seat.

The idea is that the user sits on the seat and then puts their weight onto the kneeling pads, typically with their knees or upper shins.  This configuration automatically brings forward the user's pelvis and almost forces the spine to adopt a 'natural' curve with the shoulders pushed back.

When using a kneeling posture support chair it's almost impossible not to adopt a correct posture as this position provides balance - hunching forward makes the user feel they might risk unbalancing and toppling over.

The thrird - and least common - type of posture support chair is known as a saddle chair. Sitting on this type of chair is rather like sitting in a saddle - it has no back and a seat pad that is wide at the back and narrow at the front. As with the kneeling chair, having no back means the saddle chair forces its user to sit upright and adopt the natural spinal curve.  

Which style of posture support chair a person may choose to use is very much a question of preference. For some the kneeling design is too much of a departure from what a chair should be. For others it's exactly what is needed to encourage them to adopt a correct posture whilst working and, consequently, reduce back and neck pains. The saddle chair seems designed to offer a compromise between the conventional posture support chair and the unconventional.